Annual conference – updated programme and variety of workshops

11 Apr, 2017

Preparations for the 2017 VSE annual conference are entering the final stage. There are 35 days left to the conference and the conference programme is expanding and the workshop list is getting better and more interesting.

The conference will be opened by João Lázaro – President of Victim Support Europe and Maria McDonaldBL– Victims Rights Alliance Founding Member and the openning speech will be given by Frances FitzgeraldTD Tánaiste and Minister for Justice & Equality.

Plenary sessions will start with panel 1 about Supporting victims across borders. There we will host Karen Joyce-McMahon, Deputy Assistant Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation Office for Victim Assistance, one Victim of Crime who has been victimised abroad, Mrs Tereza Sernets fromEuropol and Mark Castle, Chief Executive, Victim Support (UK).

Victim oriented criminal justice is our subject for the afternoon panel of the day 1. We still need some confirmations but on this panel we will host a Dutch prosecutor, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher from Bedfordshire Police and Helgard van Hullen from Weisser Ring Germany.

Second day will start with the third panel, Supporting vulnerable victims and helping them come forward, and our panelists will be Judith Thompson – Commissioner for victims and survivors, Northern Ireland and Paul Giannasi, Head of the Cross-Government Hate Crime Programme UK.

We are honored to host Tiina Astola, Director-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission – DG Justice, Levent Altan, Executive Directive, VSE and Sophie Linden, London Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crimefor the 4th panel which is going to beabout Supporting victims of terrorism.